


Cursed

by DGCatAniSiri



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Episode Tag, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-23
Updated: 2014-06-23
Packaged: 2018-02-05 21:28:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1832872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DGCatAniSiri/pseuds/DGCatAniSiri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A sort of epilogue to 'The New Deal,' regarding Tyler's compulsion of Jeremy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cursed

**Author's Note:**

> This was written shortly after 'The New Deal' aired, and it started life as a Jeremy/Tyler story, but Jeremy refused to appear. Stupid stubborn characters.

They didn’t understand why he believed in Klaus. He’d freed Tyler from the curse of the moon. He didn’t have to chain himself up in a dungeon and just wait and pray that the chains would hold and he wouldn’t get out and kill someone. He didn’t have to transform with each full moon and go through that pain, every single month. Elena, Caroline, everyone... They hadn’t been through something as torturous as turning into a werewolf. Klaus had saved him from that. It was why he needed to obey Klaus. And... It didn’t make him feel any less like crap when he recognized how Klaus had made him put Jeremy’s life on the line. Jeremy had been the only person who knew about all of the vampire and witch and werewolf crap in town who’d still trusted him. And now he’d gone and thrown that away, because Klaus had given a command.

Tyler had seen the look in Jeremy’s eyes after he’d fired that crossbow. The friendship that they’d struggled to come to after Vicki and Mason and all the other crap that had made the last year seem like at least two had been broken. Maybe irreparably. Was there any relationship that he had, friendship or romantic, that hadn’t been torn apart because of all of this crap? Vicki had been killed by Damon, his father had been killed during the Founder’s Day fiasco, his and Matt’s friendship had died when Tyler’s growing connection to the supernatural around them had led to him and Caroline growing close, Caroline had dumped him because of the siring, and now Jeremy was doing the same.

He needed to do something. Make things right or... Something. 

That was why he was on the Gilbert’s front porch, trying to summon the courage to rap on the door, talk to Jeremy, apologize... Whatever he needed to.

Of course, his courage didn’t come. Instead, the door opened, revealing Elena, whose face instantly dropped at seeing him. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“I wanted to see Jeremy.”

“So you could compel him again, make him throw himself off a bridge this time?” she bit out accusingly.

He scowled, even though he knew she had a right to be pissed at him. “To apologize. Hell, if you want, you can even stand there and listen to me do it so you can be sure I’m not trying to compel him. I just... I wanted to make things right.”

She glared at him as she crossed her arms. “Do you think an apology is going to make it all better?”

“No. But I don’t have a lot of friends anymore.”

“What’s the matter, Klaus’s pack playing favorites and you’re not top dog?”

Tyler bit back a retort. Maybe that meant he was growing as a person. “Look, Elena, I get it, you hate my guts right now because I nearly got Jeremy killed. You probably don’t believe it, but I hate myself for it, too. I just want to talk with him, all right? He’s... he’s pretty much the only friend I have right now.”

There was a brief flicker of sympathy on Elena’s face, but it vanished quickly. “That’s not my fault.”

“Yeah, and it’s not mine, either! I didn’t ask to be a werewolf, and I didn’t ask to be sired by Klaus! But since it’s happened, you, Bonnie, Matt, Caroline... You all treat me like I chose to do all of this. Jeremy was the only person in town who’s treated me like I wasn’t a freak since it happened. So, yeah, I want to apologize to him for what I did. I just want to talk to him.”

She was quiet a moment, giving him a long examining look. “Jeremy’s not here. He went away so he wouldn’t be in Klaus’s line of fire.”

Tyler faltered. He would have been able to handle it if Jeremy hadn’t wanted to see him, if he couldn’t forgive him. But to not be able to get the chance... “And you’re not about to tell one of Klaus’s servants where he is, right?” The bitter words came out almost as a growl. He understood why Elena did it, and why she wasn’t going to tell him where. Somewhere in the back of his mind he recognized that Klaus could order him to kill Jeremy, and to do it without remorse or sympathy, and he’d do it, and he knew that it was wrong. But the loyalty he felt because of what Klaus had done for him... That was still there, still the overwhelming feeling he had for the hybrid. And now he couldn’t even soothe the feeling of wrongness by apologizing to the one he’d hurt.

Even Elena seemed to realize how much he was beating himself up over this. “I’ll tell Jeremy about this, all right?” For a brief moment, she was looking at him as a friend again. It wasn’t going to last, but Tyler would take it.

“Thanks. And, Elena... I really mean it. I’m sorry. I... I can’t help it, all right?” For a moment, his certainty in Klaus wavered, and he was fully aware of how much of a mistake it was listening to him and doing so blindly. “I... He’s probably right to get away from here. I wish I could, too. You tell him that he’s smart to have gotten out of all this crap before it... destroyed him.” Because he’d learned that there was so much worse than death.

Again, Elena took a moment to consider his words, seeming to not just hear them but listen to them. “I will. And... thank you, Tyler. For apologizing. It may not do much, but I at least believe it’s you saying this, not Klaus. For what that’s worth.”

It could have been worthless, and pretty easily. But right now, given how little anyone else in Mystic Falls seemed to care about him, it meant a lot. “It’s worth something, Elena.”


End file.
